Vice President Kamala Harris has attracted heightened attention, including from critics and the media, amid continued bipartisan questions about President Joe Biden’s fitness for office after his roundly criticized debate performance June 27.
On July 7, during "Fox News Sunday," host Shannon Bream asked Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., about former President Donald Trump possibly running against Harris, rather than Biden, in November. Donalds expressed confidence that Trump would find material to use against Harris in the campaign.
Donalds told Bream that Harris had "co-sponsored, fully sponsored this radical Green New Deal, which will cost the American people $100 trillion."
We previously rated False the notion that the Green New Deal, a proposal backed by some Democrats when it was unveiled in 2019, would cost $100 trillion.
We contacted Donalds’ office for evidence but received no reply.
However, we confirmed through public documentation that Harris did co-sponsor Senate legislation backing the Green New Deal and, to date, still supports the measure’s principles.
What was the Green New Deal?Legislation proposing a Green New Deal was introduced Feb. 7, 2019, in both the House and the Senate, following months of discussion among progressive lawmakers and activists.
As we noted then, these resolutions addressed ways to curb climate change and protect the environment, including achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, building smart power grids, and upgrading existing buildings to maximize energy efficiency.
Beyond the environment, the proposal addressed topics including racial justice, labor union policy and higher education. The resolutions were aspirational in nature, without specific details and with no new taxes or revenue streams to fund the shift, other than an expression of confidence that these changes will pay for themselves.
The Green New Deal never gained universal support even among Democratic lawmakers, and in the Democratic-controlled House, party leaders never brought it to a vote. Meanwhile, as a resolution, the legislation would not have had the force of law even if both chambers had passed it, which they didn’t.
Even so, the proposal’s mere existence became a frequent talking point for Republicans, who warned that it would empower big government to infringe on Americans’ liberty and would cost taxpayers too much money.
What Harris said about the Green New DealDespite the Republican opposition, the proposal remained popular within the Democratic base, including with people who were poised to vote in the Democrats’ 2020 presidential primary. A significant number of Democrats who were running for president supported it, including Harris.